Secret White House Tapes

917-2

About this recording

917-2
  • President Richard M. Nixon
  • Ronald L. Ziegler
  • Alexander M. Haig
  • Lawrence M. Higby
May 14, 1973
Conversation No. 917-2

Date: May 14, 1973
Time: 8:56 am - 10:50 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Ronald L. Ziegler.

Watergate

-Press coverage

-New York Times story

-John W. Dean, III’s activities

-Dean’s statement to Newsweek

-Report

-Effects

-President
-H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman
-Dean

-Statements concerning report

-Report

-Effect of statements
-Ehrlichman, Haldeman
-2-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 917-2 (cont’d)

-Guidance to Ziegler and Patrick J. Buchanan
-Ehrlichman
-Statements to Gerald L. Warren
-Ehrlichman’s orders
-Ziegler’s forthcoming meeting with J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr. and Alexander
M. Haig, Jr.
-Access to Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] reports
-Meetings with the President
-Daniel L. Schorr
-Investigation
-Dean
-Resignation
-Meeting with the President
-Timing
-Richard G. Kleindienst [?]
-Ehrlichman’s and Haldeman’s resignations
-Immunity
-President’s meeting with Henry E. Petersen
-Justice Department
-Forthcoming grand jury appearance, May 14
-Haldeman [?]
-L[ouis] Patrick Gray, III
-Testimony before grand jury and Ervin Committee staff
-Buzhardt’s view
-Phone conversation with the President regarding investigation
-Alleged FBI warnings regarding White House
-Ziegler’s forthcoming meeting with Buchanan
-FBI investigation
-Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]

-Lt. Gen. Vernon A. Walters’s possible testimony

-President’s knowledge
-Cover-up
-Break-in
-Extent compared to knowledge of Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Gray and Dean
-President’s meeting with Dean, May 21
-President’s subsequent investigation
-3-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 917-2 (cont’d)

-Subornation of perjury

-William O. Bittman

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Jeb Stuart Magruder

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Transfer of funds
-Dean’s knowledge
-Dissemination
-Gray
-Knowledge
-Dissemination
-Conversation with Ziegler
-FBI investigation
-Conversation with the President

-FBI investigation

-Walters

-Conversation with Ziegler
-Revelation to Buzhardt
-Gray’s conversation with the President regarding investigation
-Meeting with the President

-Investigation

-White House staff involvement
-Dean
-Magruder and John N. Mitchell
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Dean
-President’s role
-Dean report
-Ziegler’s conversation with Buzhardt
-E. Howard Hunt, Jr. and G[eorge] Gordon Liddy
-Plumbers operation
-President’s order

-Motives of participants

-Leaks

-Ziegler’s conversation with Buzhardt

-Hunt, Liddy and Egil (“Bud”) Krogh, Jr.

-Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers

-Wiretaps
-4-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 917-2 (cont’d)

-Break-in of psychiatrist’s office
-Motives of participants
-Hunt, Liddy
-CIA
-Walters and Richard M. Helms

-President’s conversation with Haig, May 13

-Helms

-Presidential assessment
-Ehrlichman’s role

-Ellsberg investigation

-Request for support for Hunt

-Wiretaps

-J. Edgar Hoover

-Hunt and Liddy
-Employment with the Committee to Re-Elect the President [CRP]
-Motives of unnamed individual regarding CIA
-FBI investigation

-Helms, Ehrlichman, Walters

-Bernard L. Barker

-Bay of Pigs
-President’s meeting with Ehrlichman
-Haldeman’s and Ehrlichman’s meeting with Walters and Helms
-Walters’s meetings with Dean
-Funds for defendants

-Request for Presidential authorization

-Ehrlichman

-Dean’s possible story

-Ehrlichman
-President’s response to charges
-Knowledge of Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-President’s knowledge
-Clemency
-President’s meeting with Charles W. Colson

-Dorothy Hunt

-Promise of clemency

-President’s response to charges
-Dean’s report
-5-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 917-2 (cont’d)

-Herbert W. Kalmbach and Thomas A. Pappas
-Funds for defendants

-Ziegler and Buchanan

-Clemency

-Hunt
-Ehrlichman and Dean

-President’s response to charges

-Possible testimony

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Mitchell and Magruder

-Colson

-Dean

-Dean

-Meeting with the President, March 21

-Mitchell

-White House response
-FBI
-Ellsberg break-in
-Resignations of Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-President’s possible departure from office
-Possible impeachment
-Anthony J Russo, Jr. [?]
-Ellsberg
-Haldeman and Ehlrichman
-President’s role
-Haig, Buzhardt
-White House operations
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Dean
-Role
-Possibilities
-Documents
-Possible content

-Talk about Dean on Capitol Hill

-Background

-Press reaction

-Concerns regarding prison
-6-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 917-2 (cont’d)

-President’s files
-Possible search
-Memorandum [memo]
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Hunt

President’s schedule
-Election Reform Commission
-Bipartisan Congressional leaders
-Radio speech
-Haig’s request to discuss the President’s schedule
-Armed Forces Day

Watergate

-President’s files

-Press corps

-Time [?]

-Ervin Committee hearings

-Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Dean
-Credibility of witnesses
-Dean
-Meeting with President
-Ehrlichman’s recommendations
-US attorney
-President’s conversation with Petersen
-Dean
-Resignations
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Source of information
-Dean and Magruder
-Dean
-Petersen

Haig entered at 9:40 am.

Haig’s schedule

-Mother’s Day

-7-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 917-2 (cont’d)


Watergate

-William D. Ruckelshaus’s forthcoming statement

-Possible White House response

-Wiretaps
-Ziegler’s previous statement concerning White House activity
-Hunt and Liddy

President’s schedule

-Bipartisan Congressional leaders

-Possibility of ex-presidential candidates
-Cabinet meeting
-Speech in Norfolk, Virginia for Armed Forces Day, May 19
-Content

-Location


Watergate
-Wiretaps

-Newsmen

-Ruckelshaus

-FBI and White House

-Ruckelshaus
-Buzhardt

Ziegler left at 9:48 am.

Personnel appointments

-George P. Shultz and Henry A. Kissinger

-Council on International Economic Policy [CIEP]

-Chairman

-Senate confirmation

-Presidency

-Terms

-Possible veto of Senate Bill

-Confirmation
-Office of Management and Budget [OMB]
-Director
-8-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 917-2 (cont’d)

-Deputy Director

-Modification

-Reappointment

-House of Representatives

-Effects

-Roy L. Ash

-Senate confirmation

-OMB director

-Cabinet

-Shultz and Kissinger

Energy policy
-Division of responsibilities

-Charles J. DiBona

-Haig’s conversation with Ash

-Congress

-Cabinet

-Public representatives [?]

-John B. Connally


Connally
-Ash
-Talking points

-President’s schedule

-Role in White House

-Energy

President’s schedule
-Possible commencement address at Naval Academy
-Compared with Armed Forces Day

-Reykjavik, Iceland

-Preparation for Soviet summit

-Dirksen Research Center in Chicago, June 15

-Timing

-Wednesdays

-Weekends

-Camp David, Florida
-9-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 917-2 (cont’d)

-Wednesday meetings

-Connally, Shultz, Brennan

-Staff

-Prisoners of War [POWs]

-Travel

-Norfolk, Virginia

-Washington, DC events

-Desirability

-Chamber of Commerce, Veterans of Foreign Wars

-Businesses

-Metro subway construction

-Leonard Garment’s office

-Scheduling committee [?]

-Public relations [PR]

-Ervin Committee hearings

-President’s location


Personnel appointments
-Council of Economic Advisors [CEA]

-Gary L. Seevers

-Herbert Stein


White House organization
-Haig’s role
-Appointments
-Delegation of authority

-Compared to National Security Council [NSC] [?]

-President’s role

-Scheduling

-Policy decisions

-Long range strategy


Watergate
-White House response
-Ervin Committee
-Alexander P. Butterfield

-Campaign funds

-10-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 917-2 (cont’d)

-Krogh

-Butterfield

-Ervin Committee


Election Reform Commission
-Package
-George H. W. Bush
-William E. Timmons’s activities
-Possible congressional support

-Gerald R. Ford and Hugh Scott

-Role in initiating

-Timing


Watergate
-Ruckelshaus’s forthcoming statement

Cambodia
-Reaction to congressional vote
-Kissinger’s schedule
-Paris Peace talks
-Forthcoming Senate vote

-Missing in Action [MIA]

-Importance of vote

-President’s forthcoming speech

-Armed Forces Day

-Theme

-North Vietnam

-Possible continuation of hostilities

-Incentives to preserve peace


Watergate
-Ellsberg case
-Public reaction
-William M. Byrne, Jr.
-Release of document

-Possible effect

-Timing

-11-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 917-2 (cont’d)

-Possible effect
-Wiretap

-Possible leak

-Morton H. Halperin

-Halperin
-Reason for wiretap
-NSC staff member
-Tenure at NSC

-President’s assessment

-Kissinger’s motives

-Dean
-Documents
-Possible check of files
-Possible memo from the President
-Ziegler
-Higby
-Role in investigation
-President’s knowledge
-Haldeman
-CIA involvement
-Walters’s memoranda of conversations [memcons]
-Walters
-Possible testimony
-Grand jury
-Dean and Haldeman as witnesses
-Dean
-Possible immunity
-Timing of testimony before grand jury
-Possible effects of Ehrlichman’s and Haldeman’s testimony
-Executive privilege
-Haig’s discussions with Buzhardt
-Departures of Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-White House response
-Protection of presidency
-Possible impeachment
-Popular opinion
-President’s knowledge
-12-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 917-2 (cont’d)

-Lyndon B. Johnson and Harry S Truman

-President’s knowledge

-Sherman Adams

-President’s knowledge
-Possible attacks
-Gray’s testimony
-Buzhardt’s view

-Washington Post article

-Possible testimony

-Mitchell, Gray, Magruder, Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Dean

-Dean’s meeting with the President, March 21
-Dean
-Tactics
-Possible memo from the President
-Possible evidence against the President
-Break-in of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office
-Ruckelshaus’s forthcoming statement
-White House files
-Possible search
-Ellsberg case
-Possible release of document
-Robert C. Mardian’s statement
-White House staff knowledge
-Ehrlichman

-Delay in delivery to judge

-Location

-White House files
-FBI investigation
-Leaks to the press
-Hunt
-Possible activities
-Ehrlichman, Krogh and David R. Young, Jr.
-Possible release of document

-Ruckelshaus

-Rose Mary Woods’s files

-Possible criticism of delay in releasing Ellsberg document

-13-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 917-2 (cont’d)

-Ehrlichman

-Schorr investigation

-Dean
-FBI investigation
-Employment
-White House files
-Delivery of Ellsberg document
-Ruckelshaus’s possible statement
-FBI files
-Johnson and John F. Kennedy
-Possible destruction by William C. Sullivan
-FBI and CIA
-Ruckelshaus’s forthcoming statement
-Ziegler and Buzhardt’s review
-President’s possible role
-Haig’s role
-Haig’s term in office
-White House response
-President’s conversation with Ziegler
-Effect on nation
-Dean
-Possible memo from Ehrlichman to Dean
-Cover-up
-Ehrlichman and Haldeman
-CIA
-Helms
-Dr. James R. Schlesinger’s remark
-Congressmen’s views
-Haig’s conversation with Schlesinger
-Gen. Robert E. Cushman, Jr.
-Testimony
-Possible call from Ehrlichman
-Schlesinger’s report
-Dean’s documents

Higby entered at an unknown time after 9:48 am.
-14-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. June-2012)

Conversation No. 917-2 (cont’d)

Watergate
-Dean’s documents

-Contents

-Judge’s order regarding disposition

-National security classification

-[First name unknown] Parker

-Representation

-John J. Wilson

-Contents


Higby left at an unknown time before 10:50 am.

Watergate

-Dean’s documents

-Contents

-National security classification

-President’s files

-Higby

-Dean


Haig left at 10:50 am.
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917-2

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